Great Britain's Joseph Clarke and France's Camille Prigent set the pace as kayak cross made its Olympic Games debut at the Vaires-sur-Marne Nautical Stadium. 

The time trials saw 38 men and 37 women lay down a marker to secure their seeding and draw placement for the weekend’s heats. 

Clarke, who had qualified fastest for Thursday’s Men’s Kayak final before missing out on the medals with a fifth-placed finish, put in another blistering run on the Vaires-sur-Marne slalom course. 

Last of the 38 paddlers to go, Clarke posted a time of 66.08 seconds to push Brazil's Pedro Goncalves into second place. 

Brazilian Goncalves, whose 50-second penalty in the semi-finals saw him miss out on a place in the kayak final, posted 66.41. 

Titouan Castryck, fresh from his brilliant silver medal in Thursday’s kayak final, was the first paddler to break 68 seconds as he posted 67.29 for third, just ahead of French team-mate Boris Neveu (67.48). 

Italy's Giovanni de Gennaro followed up his gold-medal heroics from the previous day with another fast run to place fifth in a time of 67.71. 

New Zealand’s Finn Butcher, Felix Oschmautz of Austria, Noah Hegge (Germany), Mateusz Polaczyk (Poland) and Manuel Ochoa (Spain) completed the top 10. 

“That was the aim of the game – to try and get top of the time trials,” said a delighted Clarke. 

“It gives you first seed for the first round and, as long as you keep winning those rounds, then you keep getting that first-lane pick. I’ve got my eye on what lane I would ideally be in given the opportunity, so hopefully I can go on to do good things.” 

A determined Clarke has his eye on gold after missing out on the medals in Thursday’s kayak cross. 

“That’s why I’m here, to try and win the event,” he said.  

“I think when we get going and start knocking a few people out is when it’s going to start getting interesting, because the last 16, last eight, last four are going to be really tight racing.” 

In the women’s time trials, Great Britain’s Mallory Franklin, whose 50-second penalty in the final of the Women’s Canoe blew her chances of a medal, recovered from that disappointment to post an impressive time of 71.85. 

That set the standard until the final four paddlers of the time trial, home favourite Prigent taking top spot with a time of 70.33, before double Paris gold-medallist Jessica Fox followed her home in 70.84. 

Franklin’s early time was good enough for third place, with her British team-mate Kimberley Woods the last to paddle but only managing 16th place. 

New Zealand’s Luuka Jones was fourth in 72.10 and Ana Satila of Brazil fifth in 72.64. 

USA’s Evy Leibfarth, still on a high from her podium finish in the women’s canoe final, was sixth, ahead of Ricarda Funk and Noemie Fox. 

Prigent will now kick-off Saturday’s Round One races as she comes up against Slovenia’s Eva Tercelj and Czechia’s Tereza Fiserova in the first race of the day at 15:30 CET. 

“I’m just trying to take it step-by-step,” Prigent said. 

“I wanted a good run to get myself a good spot on the ramp. Now I can see what the plan is for tomorrow, but first I’ll get some rest. 

“In kayak cross, you need to be in the moment – it never happens as you envisage so I will just try to be present and not make too many plans.”  

Top-seed Clarke will kick-off the men’s heats against Tunisia’s Salim Jemai and Casey Eichfeld of United States in Race 1 at 16:40 CET. 

Goncalves faces China’s Xin Quan and Amir Rezanejad Hassanjani of the International Olympic Committee Refugee Olympic Team in Race 2.